World Bank: ‘We Will Never End Poverty If We Don’t Tackle Climate Change’

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(Photo: AP)

After a brief respite from global warming-related news, climate change seems to be reappearing more frequently now that President Obama has won re-election.

The new president of the World Bank, it seems, is deeply troubled by the “unequivocal” science behind man-made global warming, and hopes that a recently-released World Bank report will “shock the world into action.”

All nations will suffer the effects of a warmer world, but it is the world’s poorest countries that will be hit hardest by food shortages, rising sea levels, cyclones and drought, the World Bank said in a report on climate change.

Under new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, the global development lender has launched a more aggressive stance to integrate climate change into development.

“We will never end poverty if we don’t tackle climate change. It is one of the single biggest challenges to social justice today,” Kim told reporters on a conference call on Friday.

The report, called “Turn Down the Heat,” highlights the devastating impact of a world hotter by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, a likely scenario under current policies, according to the report. [Emphasis added]

Highlighting the possibility of melting ice caps, rising sea levels, drought, etc. the report says the World Bank will try to strike a balance between limiting emissions and accommodating the energy needs of the poor.

Reuters continues:

Last year, the Bank doubled its funding for countries seeking to adapt to climate change, and now operates $7.2 billion in climate investment funds in 48 countries.

The World Bank study comes as almost 200 nations will meet in Doha, Qatar, from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7 to try to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the existing plan for curbing greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations that runs to the end of the year.

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“There really is no alternative to urgent action given the devastating consequences of climate change,” global development group Oxfam said in a statement. “Now the question for the World Bank is how it will ensure that all of its investments respond to the imperatives of the report.” [Emphasis added]